44
Murmurs indicative of the utmost interest broke out round the tabledirectly Signor Cristofero stopped speaking. Interest mingled here andthere with a little disappointment, for many a cherished theory had tobe abandoned or modified. Mr. Macdermott, for instance, had not yetfound a place for Sinn Fein in the plot as at present revealed, norMr. O'Shane for Ulster. The Lithuanian delegate was, to say the leastof it, surprised that the affair was not more largely due to disbandedPolish soldiers of Zeligowski's army, and the delegates of more thanone nation found it strange that the Germans appeared to be out ofthis thing. But, after all, Dr. Franchi had been only the agent; hemight be backed by any one in the world, and doubtless was. Also, hemust have had many ruffians in his employ to do the executive work. Sono doubt really and in the main things were pretty much as each memberof the committee had suspected. The members who looked most gratifiedwere the Latin Americans, from whom suspicion was now honourablylifted (though they regretted that Charles Wilbraham was no longer asuspect), and the Serb-Croat-Slovene delegate, who stared at hisItalian colleague with a rather malicious smile. Had he not alwayssaid that Italians (unless it were Albanians) had done this thing?
The President, after thanking Signor Cristofero much for his highlyinteresting and important information, asked if any other gentlemanwould like to say anything. The delegate from Bolivia begged topropose that the committee should accompany Signor Cristofero and thepolice on the visit to the ch?teau, as they certainly ought to bepresent on the occasion. This suggestion was received with universalacclamation, and it was decided that a steamer should take them all upto Monet at six-thirty.
A subdued voice from beside the President's chair inquired whether thepress would also be permitted on the expedition. In the excitement,astonishment, and disappointment of Signor Cristofero's story and theprospect of such a stimulating lake trip, the correspondent of the_British Bolshevist_ had temporarily forgotten his (or her, as thecase might be) own troubles.
The inquiry focused the attention of the committee again on Mr.Beechtree, that dubious, if irrelevant, problem. A smile ran round theroom.
The President said that undoubtedly correspondents would be permittedto accompany the expedition, for reports of the day's discoveries andevents must as soon as possible be communicated to the press.
45
Mr. Beechtree, feeling uncomfortable under the general interest and inthe intolerable presence of Mr. Wilbraham, slipped away. He wantedprivacy to think, to hide from the fire of eyes. More, he wantedcoffee. And perhaps a raspberry ice-cream soda with it. There was oneplace he knew of.... Dashing down to the Paquis, he just caught a_mouette_ for the Eaux Vives jetty. From there to the ice-cream caf?was but a short way. He hurried to it, and soon was enjoying thecomfort of coffee, a raspberry ice-cream soda, and meringues. Afterall, there was always that, however bitter a defeat one might sufferat the hands of life. He also had a cocktail.
He drank, ate, and imbibed through straw, to give himself a littlecourage and cheerfulness in the black bitterness of defeat. Blackbitterness it was, for his long-laid scheme of revenge had toppled,crashing on the top of him, and Charles Wilbraham, eyeing the ruins,hatefully and superciliously smiled, for ever and always in theright....
Charles Wilbraham towered, with his hateful rightness, before Henry'sdrowsy eyes (how long it was since he had slept!), and he slipped fora moment into a dream, the straw falling from his mouth.
He woke with a start, hastily ate a meringue, called for his bill,and looked at his watch. It was nearly six o'clock. In half an hourthe steamer would start for Monet. Well, that at least would beinteresting. Henry was all for getting what joy he could out of thisuneven life.
He walked across the Jardin Anglais, and saw at the pier the party ofpleasure crowding on to a pleasant-looking white steamer called _JeanJacques_. Pulling his soft hat over his eyes, Henry slipped in amongthe throng, and embarked on what might well prove to be his lastofficial lake trip. He felt rather shy, for he had become, though in aminor way, News. Women were News; and women disguised as men weredoubly and trebly News (and Henry felt sure that Charles Wilbrahamwould be believed on this point rather than he, who had said it was adamned lie).
He slipped through the crowd and took up a nonchalant attitude in thebows, smoking cigarettes and looking at the view.
46
They were a happy and expectant party. The decks hummed with happy andexcited talk. All feuds seemed to be healed by the common interest.The committee seemed truly a League of Brothers. This is the value ofparties of pleasure. The only people who looked sullen were the groupof policemen, for Swiss policemen habitually wear this air.
From group to group, with M. Kratzky at his elbow, moved CharlesWilbraham, complacent, proud, triumphant, like a conjurer who has donea successful trick. "Here is the rabbit, gentlemen," he seemed to besaying. His colleagues on the Secretariat watched him cynically.Wilbraham had put this job through very well, but how bad it had beenfor him! Emphatically they did not like Wilbraham.
"And the man who really did the trick has forgotten all about it, andis talking to every one in their own language about the affairs oftheir own countries," as Vaga the Spaniard remarked. He had a peculiardistaste for Charles.
Grattan came up grinning to Henry.
"Hallo, Beechtree. You seem to have provided one of the sensations ofthe day. I didn't know you had it in you. I'm sorry your sportingeffort to upset our friend Wilbraham failed."
"So am I," Henry gloomily returned. "He deserves to be upset. And I'mnot even now sure he hadn't a hand in it all.... But of course it's nouse saying so. No one will ever believe it of him now that I've muckedit so. They'll believe nothing I say.... Did you hear what he saidabout me at the committee meeting? I suppose every one has."
"Well, I imagine it's got about more or less. Is it true, by the way?"
"On the contrary, a complete and idiotic lie."
The expressionless detachment of Henry's voice and face moved Grattanto mirth.
"That's all right, then; I'll put it about. You keep on smiling, oldbean. No one's going to worry, even if it wasn't a lie, you know."
"Wilbraham will worry. He will, no doubt, take steps to have meexcluded from the Press Gallery as a disreputable character. I don'tparticularly mind. What I do mind is that it isn't Wilbraham who'sgoing to get run in for this business, but poor old Franchi. I _like_Franchi. He's delightful, however many delegates he's kidnapped."
"Oh, the more the better. A jolly old sportsman. My word, what abrain! Talk of master criminals, ... and to think that I once thoughtthe Assembly scarcely worth coming for. Live and learn. I shall nevermiss another." He called to Garth, who was passing.
"I say, Garth, Beechtree says he's not a lady and that Wilbraham's aliar. Spread it about, there's a good chap."
Garth nodded. He, like Grattan, believed Wilbraham on this point andnot Henry, but it was more comfortable to take Henry at his ownvaluation. After all, if the chap _was_ a woman, whose concern was itbut his own? Rather a caddish trick on Wilbraham's part to havepublicly accused him. Though, to be sure, he had just been by himpublicly accused, so perhaps they were quits. But, poor girl (if shewas a girl), she must be feeling up a tree now. She seemed a niceenough person, too; a bit of a fool, of course, but then any one who'dwrite for the _British Bolshevist_, that pestilential rag, would needto be either a fool or a knave, or both.
So, on the whole, Henry was not acutely uncomfortable among hiscolleagues of the press.
Once Wilbraham passed close to him talking to the second Britishdelegate, and fixed him with a glassy stare. Henry, refusing to beembarrassed, put up his monocle and stared back, as if surprised atthe ill-breeding of this person.
So they came to the Monet pier, as the village church clock chimedseven.
47
The scheme of action had been carefully planned and organised bySignor Cristofero, with the help of the perfidious Roumanian Baptistat the ch?teau, who now, terrified at his own trea
chery, only longedfor his master to be removed from the scene. The ex-cardinal, thisBaptist had said, meant to dine that night, as he often did when hehad not company, with his prisoners in the Keep Wing. He would bethere when the detective, the police, the committee, and the pressarrived at the ch?teau, and the party would be conducted there atonce, to surprise the host and his guests at meat.
The delegate from Costa Rica had asked the detective if they shouldall bring weapons, but Signor Cristofero had said no.
"Quite unnecessary. Franchi does not go armed. He does not go in forbloodshed, except for some necessary purpose. When he sees he istrapped, he will throw down his hand with resignation. After all, thepenalty for the abduction without injury, even of many delegates, isnot very heavy. A term of imprisonment, then he will be free again. Heintended, of course, to make his escape from the neighbourhood when hereleased his prisoners, and so be beyond reach of capture when thetruth came out. He will be mortified at the failure of his plan--in sofar as it has failed--but for himself he will not very greatly care. Iknow Dr. Franchi of old."
So revolvers were only taken by delegates and journalists of thosenations which regard these weapons as a natural part of the humanequipment for facing society.
As they trailed up from the Monet pier through the village, the partyhad the innocuous, cheerful, plebeian, only-man-is-vile air of alllarge parties of pleasure in beautiful country.
They approached the ch?teau by its public drive, which turned off theroad beyond the village. Signor Cristofero knocked on the front door,which was opened by a villainous looking young man whom the partypresumed to be the repentant Roumanian Baptist, and whom SignorCristofero addressed fluently in a tongue even stranger than are mosttongues. The young man replied in the same.
"Dr. Franchi is in the Keep Wing, dining with the delegates," SignorCristofero informed his companions. "This man will conduct us thereand admit us. He has the pass keys."
The party, led by the scowling Baptist, trooped into the ch?teau likea party of eager tourists ciceroned by a sulky guide.
They passed through the hall, through the company of dogs who seemedto like everybody except Henry and the delegate from Haiti, and thencealong a sunny, airy corridor which led up to a nail-studded,triple-locked oak door, behind an ecclesiastical leather curtain. TheRoumanian produced three keys, unlocked the door, and led the wayalong a further passage, this time only lighted by high, smallwindows. Here began the Keep Wing. At the farther end of this corridorwas another oak door, this time only once locked. From beyond it camethe sound of cheerful voices raised in talk and laughter. TheRoumanian hung back. He obviously did not desire to lead the way anyfarther. After a short, low-toned conversation with Signor Cristofero,he went back through the triple-locked door.
"He fears his master," the detective remarked, with a shrug. "He isgoing to make his escape from the ch?teau, lest the other servantsexecute vengeance on him. No matter. We are now arrived."
Having with a gesture summoned round him the police, he opened thedoor and led the way into the room beyond.
It was a large refectory, with a long table down the middle. At thenear end of it sat Dr. Franchi, with lifted glass; down the sides wereranged the lost delegates. One of them--perhaps Lord Burnley, who saton his host's right--seemed to have been telling an amusing story, forall at the near end of the table were laughing. Or rather, nearly all:for, resolute in its gravity, its air of protest, the face of LordJohn Lester, the mainstay of the League, was bent sadly over a dishof salted almonds.
The ex-cardinal had barely time to look round at the noise of entrybefore three policemen seized him firmly and snapped handcuffs on hiswrists.
48
It was a scene the like of which, it is safe to say, had never beforebeen seen among all the strange scenes which had been enacted alongthe shores of that most lovely lake. A strange scene, and a strangecompany.
The faces of some thirty delegates, interrupted in their meal, wereturned, with varying expressions, upon the new-comers. Lord JohnLester sprang to his feet, with an impatient cry of "At last!" whichwas, however, drowned by the ecstatic croon of Mademoiselle thedelegate for Roumania, "Ah! mon Dieu! Nous sommes sauv?s! Un jour deplus, et nous serions deport?es," and a loud cry from Miss GinaLongfellow, who sprang from her seat at the other end of the table.
"Dio mio! We sure are copped!"
"Arrest the lady also, as an accomplice," remarked Signor Cristoferoquietly.
Dr. Franchi suddenly began to struggle violently, thus engaging theattention of the police. As suddenly, he ceased to struggle, and saidcalmly, "Ebbene. E scappata," and it was apparent that Miss Longfellowhad vanished.
"You will not find her now," said her uncle. "She knows where to hide.Besides, what has she done, the innocent?"
"The passages are guarded," Signor Cristofero remarked.
"Not, I think, my dear Angelo," said Dr. Franchi, looking at him forthe first time, "the passage she will take.... So, Angelo, this isyour work. I might have guessed. Gentlemen, my only and distinguishedbrother."
With a bow he introduced Signor Cristofero to his guests.
The detective smiled grimly at him, and addressed him in the Italianof the Lombardy Alps.
"This point is mine, I think, Silvio. It is a long war between us, inwhich you often score, but this point is mine."
"I grant it you, my dear Angelo, without rancour. Your abilities havealways been so near the level of my own that I can take defeat at yourhands without mortification. You will at least pay me the tribute ofacknowledging the ingenuity and partial success of my scheme."
"That tribute I always pay you, Silvio. But, as has occasionallyhappened before, your ingenuity broke down at one point. You yieldedto a whimsical impulse, and sent to the officials of the League acertain telegram couched in the words of the English version of aHebrew psalm. When I heard this, I, remembering your addiction to theEnglish translation of the psalms, identified you at once.... But thisis no time for conversation. Later, a statement will be demanded ofyou. At present my business is to deliver you over to the law, and togive these gentlemen their liberty."
"You will find no difficulty in either, my dear brother.... This,then, gentlemen and ladies, is good-bye. I must apologise for anyinconvenience that may have been caused by your detention, either toyourselves or to the society which you represent, and I must thank youfor the great pleasure you have afforded me by your company. I thinkthat, at least, you will be able to report that you have suffered nogreat discomforts while my guests."
"We have been most excellently entertained," Lord Burnley replied, anda murmur of assent ran round the table.
The Albanian Bishop rose to his feet, lifting his glass.
"Your health, sir," he said, and the other delegates drank the toast.(All except Lord John Lester, who impatiently muttered "Pshaw!")
"Indeed," said Mlle. Binesco, "Dr. Franchi has been more than kind.Another few days, and we might have fallen into the hands of theiniquitous traffickers behind him and been deported overseas--but hepersonally has been most good to us. _All_ we could want...."
Fergus Macdermott had pushed to the front of the interested onlookers.
"I'd like to ask you one question, sir. Why didn't your people finishthe job they began on myself--if it was your people, and not, as Isuspect, some Sinn Fein scoundrels?"
The ex-cardinal gave his kindly smile.
"It was certainly my people, Mr. Macdermott. But, in attacking you,they made a mistake. When they perceived who you were, they desisted.They had, you see, orders not to remove certain delegates, of whom youand your colleague from South Ireland were two, from the scene. It wasconsidered that the Irish delegates would serve the cause I have thehonour to represent better by their presence at the Assembly than bytheir absence from it."
"Enough talk," Signor Cristofero put in. "It is time we went."
"Brief and to the point as ever, dear brother. Good-bye, then,gentlemen and ladies. I regret, Lord Burnley, not to have ha
d time inwhich to finish the interesting conversation we began last night onthe subject of my present book. It will have to keep for happier days.Meanwhile, I hope to have a quiet little time in which to meditate onand complete the book."
As he passed Henry Beechtree on his way to the door, he stopped.
"Ah, my dear young man. Luck did not favour our little plan, did it?"
"That person," said the disagreeable voice of Charles Wilbraham, "is,if I may be allowed to mention it, a young woman, Dr. Franchi."
The ex-cardinal turned to him a cold face.
"I have known that, Mr. Wilbraham, a good deal longer than you have."He smiled sweetly at Henry.
"Yes, my young friend. There was an incident, you may recollect, of agoldfish.... I have several--er--nephews and nieces--and have watchedthem grow up. Never yet have I seen the boys disturbed by suchepisodes. Masculine nerves are, as a rule, more robust. You shouldremember this in future.... You will pardon my having noticed theincident. I would never have referred to it had not the subject beenraised. Some day you shall dine with me again, if you will.... But mygood brother grows impatient. Good-bye again, my friends. A rivederci."
He was led away. He would be taken to Geneva in a police launch, withthe detective, the police, and the arrested servants. The delegatesand press were to follow in the steamer.